


Steve Rogers is a Bad Student

by Onedayatatime



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: FRIEEEENNDDDS, Friendship, Gen, NOT a high school au, Steve and OFC are friends because frienship is UNDERRATED, Steve learns history, steve catches up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 11:32:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17866469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onedayatatime/pseuds/Onedayatatime
Summary: SHIELD decided Steve needed to catch up on stuff if he wanted to be a soldier. They had not anticipated Captain America to be such a bad student. After a slew of tutors had quit, Maria Hill calls in a favor from an old friend.Steve doesn't just get a tutor, he gets one of his only non-secret agent friends.





	Steve Rogers is a Bad Student

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking if SHIELD was even a little smart they would've filled their super secret agent in on what the Cold War was. So I imagined him needing a special tutor, because of the unique circumstances. I also imagined him being a terrible student, who just kinda wanted to draw. Also due to how frustrating and disappointing this must have been, with tutors presumably only caring about his military career, he would probably have frustrated and fought with the teachers.  
> (also I know we all love feminist Steve , but he is from 1942, like he's not gonna wake up knowing how modern society looks at certain things. What's important is that he learns and tries to do better)

Maria Hill had been Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America’s handler for about 7 weeks by now, and frankly she was tired. When she had found out she was going to get to train a super-soldier and American icon, she thought it would be modern combat and workouts. She had not realized that it would actually be making sure he used his seatbelt, quit smoking, explaining what “Galaga” was, and -most frustratingly- explaining it was inappropriate to all people “colored”, “oriental”, and “broads”. It wasn’t frustrating because he was unwilling to listen, it was frustrating because she didn’t have time to  answer all his questions.

And he had _so_ many questions. He had asked when it became inappropriate to use that kind of language, and why.  He had asked why bananas were gross, why the U.S. was still at war, why neo-Nazis were a still a thing, what “Ban the Bomb” signs meant, and how gay marriage became a thing. While she couldn’t blame him, he woke up after 70 years, she’d be curious too. but she still had to train 58 other agents.

So, she and some of the top handlers, advisors, professors, and military experts developed a curriculum to help him catch up on everything he needed to know. However, Captain America and Steve Rogers were not the same person. Captain America was the good soldier in the PSA’s they watched growing up. Steve Rogers was that kid in class who just wanted to draw and would fight with the teacher.

And did he fight. He had been through 12 tutors in 5 weeks. The record for shortest amount of time was 5 hours, and the longest was 12 days. They had run out of all the professors with a security clearance, there was no one left!

“Maybe that’s the issue? Steve might have been a soldier, but he’s still a punk from Brooklyn.” Maria thought while tapping her pen on the desk. “Didn’t Lily just get her PhD?”

* * *

 

Maria sat tapping her pen against her desk, Lily was her last hope. She was an old friend from college, a history major and a tad eccentric. She was notorious for sitting in odd places and being kind of a mess, but she was a damn good tutor. She could teach anyone anything as long as it was about history. 

When Maria called her she had just finished up her PHD but no one was hiring. She explained she had a student with unique needs.  Lily just said “Sure, I’ve got nothin’ better to do.” 

Maria was unsure if she would show up in a T-Shirt insulting Sigmund Freud or Watson and Crick or some other old white guy, she could walk in straight out of 1972. “Maybe she was going through a 50’s thing?” Maria wondered.

In walked (now) Dr. Lilibeth Dimano. Maria’s jaw dropped. 

“Lily!” 

“Maria!”

“What happened to your hair?” 

“I grew it out, Kris thought it’d make me look more palatable to the committee, apparently academics don’t like angry bald brown girls. Now that I’m Dr. Dimano I was gonna shave it again, but I kinda like the bob.” Lily smiled.

“It’s good. You look different, but it’s still good. A little on the Carl Sagan side of things” Maria couldn’t get over Lily’s new look. She ditched the graphic t-shirts for an old professor look.

“That was the intended effect.” She pretended to flip her hair, and burst out laughing. “Speaking of- is my student here?”

“Lily that has nothing-” Maria remembered Lilibeth’s tendency to switch topics in the middle of a sentence, and decided it was better to move on. “You know what. Yes, Steve is in the other room. Here’s your curriculum. They got up to the war of 1812.”

“Maria. You know me. I’m not gonna do this if you are breathing down my neck. I’m gonna do this my way, and make sure my student learns in the most effective way possible.” Lily became gravely serious, almost out of nowhere.

Maria decided to match her tone, “Dr. Dimano, this is a study plan designed by some of the best scholars-”

“And how has that worked Ms. Hill? I get to do it my way, or I’ll walk and you’ll be stuck with a clueless supersoldier you’ll have to release into civilian life..”

“How did you know? Who leaked?” Maria worried there was a mole.

“Why else would you call?” Lily let out a short laugh. “It’s not exactly like super secret government agencies are interested in bald brown girls with a history of calling out government overreach, with a brand new PHD.”

Maria shook her head, nothing could get past her.

“You win. As long as it works. Let’s go meet Captain Rogers.” 

Maria showed her around the complex, explaining where she was and absolutely was not allowed to be. “Here’s the cafeteria, but I’m telling you bring your own lunch, the food here is gross.” She pointed to a tiny hallway “The women’s room is down the hall and to your right, and here is your classroom.”

It was a small conference room with two windows, a table and a projector. “Not quite the classroom I would have set up, but okay.” Lilibeth thought.

When Maria opened the door Lily had no idea what to expect. She knew Captain America from TV, and the movies. She had to watch a Sam J Jones look-alike dressed in the suit tell her not smoke weed or eat a Mars Bar.

What she was not expecting was the real Steve Rogers. There was something equal parts off-putting and comforting about seeing him like this.

She was really not expecting him to speak to her, despite talking to each other being her sole job.

“Ma’am, I’m Steve.”

“I’m Dr. Lilibeth Dimano. I’m really excited to work with you.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment or kudos if you liked it, I'd really appreciate it!  
> This is just the intro, there is definitely more exciting things to come.


End file.
